1. I can’t get away from school for very long. My friends and family branded me as a “professional student” a loooonnnng time ago.

2. One of the joys of returning to CTU as a member of the staff is to reap the benefits of “being in school” without the pressure of being an “official student.”

It’s true—this week alone, I have considered Steve Bevan’s reflection on “A Day without Vatican II,” at our Alumni/ae Reunion lecture, contemplated the spirituality of Thérèse of Lisieux with Mary Frohlich at our quarterly Sundays at CTU presentation and Mass, and received new insights into “full, conscious, and active participation” with Ed Foley at our Rediscovering Vatican II Lecture Series. Freed from the task of an upcoming assignment (and even note-taking!) I can revel in the fact that the transformation brought by learning is life-long.

Of all my CTU learning moments this week, perhaps the most memorable happened outside the lecture hall. As an auditor in the course component of the Rediscovering Vatican II series, I experience the joy each week of crowding into a classroom post-lecture with nearly 40 students and simply listening to the way the week’s material has moved us. We span at least five decades of life; we have crossed most portions of the nation and globe; we are religious and lay persons, parents and priests, seasoned and emerging ministers. And we struggle—intellectually, in the parish pews, and in our communities--to articulate how the Spirit present at the Second Vatican works among us today. We simultaneously express gratitude and trepidation about where we have come and where we will go as a Church. Toward the end of our time together this week, our Nigerian classmate Sr. Rita asserted that first of all, education on the teachings of this Council for all the faithful is key. And second of all, she continued emphatically, pausing to sweep her gaze around the room,

“We are the Church! So let’s do it!”

Sr. Rita reminded us that we are sent forth to be Church. Her reminder holds true for all of God’s people. We are each called and sent. “So let’s do it!”